Fragments of Noir

Wednesday, 20 May 2026

Dark Reflections #48

Sudden Fear

Twilight

The Housemaid (1960)

Shutter Island

Lady from Shanghai

The Matrix

Dark Corner

Dark City

Dead of Night

Plein Soleil

Man Who Wasn't There

Sopranos

He Ran All the Way

Black Swan

The Bribe

Tuesday, 19 May 2026

He came into his own in a series of RKO B-pictures, such as Out of the Past (1947), which perfected his brand of tough fatalism. He learned to roll with the punches, wore a raincoat (the same one in 40 pictures) that said bad weather ahead, and was non-aspirational in the characters he played - chumps mostly, who fell hard for bad women.

Chris Petit
The Guardian
2001

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2001/nov/03/biography.highereducation1

Live in the Question

Have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart .... live in the question.

Rainer Maria Rilke

image
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Monday, 18 May 2026

Dark Femmes #29

Anna - Criss Cross

Hilde Hagen - Insomnia (1997)

Marion Castle - The Big Knife

Fay Forrester - Kill Me Again

Belle - Belle et la Bete

Bridget Gregory - Last Seduction

Vera - The Servant

Helene Regnier - La Rupture

Norma Desmond - Sunset Boulevard

Mona Demarkov - Romeo is Bleeding

Toni Marachek - Strange Love of Martha Ivers

Gloria Decrey - Le Dos Au Mur

Lilly Dillon - The Grifters

Celia Lamphere - Secret Beyond the Door

Helen Nosseross - Night and the City

Adele Corners - Kalifornia

Pauline Nevins - Scarlet Hour

Marie Gardner - Nightfall

Too Many Times

He had been the same route too many times. He'd been there before, so double-damned often, and however you travelled - backward, forward, or walking on your hands - you always got to the same place.

The Grifters
Jim Thompson
1963